Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1887-09-01

-. - HUH IIH
fireplace IN the billiard-room. when /
noticeu a small round object lvino
Just inside themarble lender. Curious
TO know what it was left NV seat
and picked it up. II was a ieweler,s
ring case-not an upeommon %art;cla
certainly, yet hardly The sort OF thing
one often secs on the floor OF a bill.
liard-room.
suddenly l remembered that tbe
American had been standing clcse to
the spot where | found it, when. ear.
ller IN the day, chad exchanged INV
Z.ooO francs worth OF notes for his
diamond. An uncomfortable feel-
ing crossed my mind. What did he
want with a ring case? He had
been wearing the ring he sold to me
de might have kept a case for Il ~
course and might have thrown Il
away. when he parted with the RING.
yet that sesmed an unusual sor. az :
thing Tor q man to doe
II opened the case. The aka
name was inscribed in gilt letters in.
side the lid, and the address p-ivenwas
Paris. Parisp said | to myself .Ha
SAID the ring had been bought in IRA
III. There was no real ground for
suspicion, yet was uneasy. / went
upstairs and took out tho ring. The
pattern-you see it is a peculiar one
remembered well. Somehow I
Judged, or fancied, that the diamond
DID not shine as brightly as it had
lone the night before.
Next morning | took the ring To n
second leweler and asked him h;s
opinion as to its value. He evan.
med the diamond carefully and laid r.
down on the glass case before hin,
with one contemptuous word:
Pastel
Pastel echoed. Impossible,
certainly paste, and a very good
mutation, he replied, turning away
My heart sank within me. Eigbtv
pounds was a sum L could i'll afford to
loose. II meant a summary end to
my holidays, not to speak OF embar.
easements that would last some slime.
with a faint hope that the second
expert had been mistaken, / took the
ring to the Jeweler who had offered the
American 5000 francs for it.
lie seemed pleased to see me. but
as soon as he glanced at the ring his
face changed.
This is not the same ring You
showed me yesterday he said in a
tone that made it plain that he
thoueht l msant to cheat him. at
least he added, 1T is not the same
stone. This is not a stone at all; it is
paste.
$50 have been told,' l said sad
ly. Are you sure the jewel | showed
you yesterday was a genuine dia-
mond?'
81 am certain al it, he answered.
"The honorable conduct las | had
thought i'll OF the stranger in refusing
to sell to the ieweler was now intelli.
gible. The ieweler meant to keep the
real stone. 1t was not difficult to see
how the fraud had been managed.
The swindler had had two rings made
exactly alike of a striking and pecu-
liar pattern. In one of them he had
placed a genuine and very fine dia-
mond. This was the decoy. In the
other he had put a false diamond,
closely resembling in size and shape
the genuine one in the first ring.
The one be wor and offered to sell
was the true stone. When he had got
it back from the jeweler he had kept
it and had given me tha sham one in
exchange for my ESQ. What was / to
do.
The first thing was to ascertain
whether my friend had left the hotel.
OF course he had-on the afternoon OF
the previous day; still the scent was
SO hot. / fancied ! should have little
difficulty in tracing him. But when |
found HIM my difficulties would only
begin. OF coures he would swear that
he had sold me the ring with the stone
which the jeweler had declared to be
genuine. | might, coneeivably, have
substituted paste for the true gem as
we'll as he. In any case, when /
thought OF the difficulty OF getting
back my money from an American
wandering about EuropeS my heart
sank within me Even il the poliece
consented to help me, taking my word
against his, even if the rogue were con-
vIcted. how was ] to recover tho 1000
francs.
'sThese thoughts passed through
my mind as / hurried back to the ho-
tel. Certainly the prospect was
gloomy enough.
81 easily ascertained that the Amer
lean had taken the trainfor Paris the
day before, and determined to follow
HIM at once. l did not despair of
finding him, as ne would probably put
up at one of the good hotels.
ION the way up to Paris | could
think OF nothing but my loss. This
fellow / saw had hit upon a very safe
and profitable method of swindling.
In nine cases out of ten the cheated
man would not discover his loss for
for years after he had seen the last OF
the American, il, indeed, the trick was
discovered at all, for the paste was
quite good enough to deceive a casual
observer, and the owner would, OF
course, be actuated by a profound
faith in his diamond straight from
Brazil. Had it not been for the Incl
dent of my finding the ring case
which the rogue had accidentally
dropped, / should in all probability
have unwittingly cheated poor Tu-
reune out of his money, and he might
~afterward have been supposed 30 be
trying to palm off q spurious dia-
mond for a realgem. In all probabili-
ty the fellow made a living-and a
very good one-by going about Eu-
rope and practicing this trick.
'sThis idea sent of my thoughts on
a new track, and by the time | had
arrived in Paris / had decided on my
course OF action.
First of all | made careful !nqui-
ries at the railway station as to atan
American who had arrived at
Nice by ~ certain train on a proceed
ing iay; and, by the help of some o.
france pieces, | found the cabman
who had driven him to his hotel-the
Continental.
s'This being a~scertained, l chose q
quiet. unpretendfng hotel for myself
near one OF the railway stations.
Then ! emptied the contents OF a light
bag on my bed, and, taking it empty
i'm my hand, | went to a theatrical
costumer's and saying l intended TO
take part in some private theatricais,
/ hired the costume OF a French able.
1T was n part / had often played ina
piece that had a pretty long run IN
London some eight years ago. and i
had little doubt that ] would be able
to acauit myself in it fairly WE'LL. !
got the proper dress, wig. powder and
everything complete, and having pnt
all the articles into my bag, went to
one of the railway stations and took
n return ticket for a station q little
way out IN the country. -
ssTo my disgust found 1t impossi-
ible to ge: a compartment to myself
the train M too crowced, but re-
fected that the trains returning TO
Paris wonld probably be much less
arnnhnd in the Afternoon than those